The Mets and Braves play the rubber game of the three game set tonight. The series has been defined so far by 8 run innings. In the first game, the Mets were down 4-0 before an 8 run 4th put them in the lead for good. Last night, the game was 0-0 and then in the second the Braves had their own 8 run inning as they went on to beat the Mets by a whopping score of 15-2. Johan Santana and Kawakami will try to show both clubs tonight that Baseball is supposed to have low scores as they each take the mound.
Santana (13-8) has a 3.10 ERA over 159.2 innings on the season and in his last three games he has been a work horse pitching 22.2 innings with a 1-0 record and a 3.97 ERA. This season he has been excellent against the Braves with a 1-1 record over 13.1 innings in two games where he has given up 0 earned runs. Here are some stats the Braves have on him:
Anderson 7-26
Infante 2-24
Diaz 11-20
Escobar 5-15
LaRoche 1-7
Church 1-5
The Mets pitching staff as of late has shown very little consistency. It would for Santana to start to close the season strong (just like how he started it). He will of course need something that he lacked at the start of the season and that is run support.
The Mets bats after scoring 9 runs went back to a silent state last night as they drove in two runs. They will need to fivure out Kawakami tonight who is 5-9 on the season with a 4.13 ERA over 124.1 innings pitched. In his last three games he is 0-1 with 19.1 innings logged, a 2.79 ERA and has walked 3 while striking out 9. Against the Mets this year he is 0-2 over 11.2 innings but has a nice 3.09 ERA. Here are the numbers the Mets have against him this season:
Castillo 1-5
Murphy 1-5
Pagan 2-3
Francoeur 1-3
It would be very nice to take a series from the Braves and frustrate their playoff hopes and also to help us to climb back to .500. Lets Go Mets! Take a Series from the Braves!
